JOTA 2012

My first JOTA was impressive, at least for me. =8-) With only weeks to the JOTA date, I received confirmation that I would get my Full license and just in time we registerred with the dutch JOTA/JOTI organisation. That was days after my Icom IC7000's driver stage died... So I made a call on the dutch zendamateur.com forum and Douwe PA7D replied that the JOTA should alway be held and offered his Icom 706Mk2 as a replacement transceiver in case my IC7000 didn't return before the JOTA. Since I had no operating practise (only had my license a few weeks when the JOTA was held) I also was looking for a second HAM to add to the team. It looked like all HAM's were busy that weekend, but then I got a call from Anton PC1A who offered to help me out. This was HAM spirit to the max and I was both emotionally touched by this and very relieved. Thanks a million, on behalf of myself and on behalf of Scouting van Maasdijk, for making the JOTA 2012 the success it was!

During the JOTA 2012 we operated 2 stations: Anton PC1A operated his Kenwood TS20000X, connected to a 2M yagi and an FD4. I operated an FT897D and some VHF and D-Star transceivers (together with and borrowed from Douwe, PA7D, because my own IC700 was still in repairs...) connected to a Diamond X50N on top of our tower at 22m+ above ground. Our QTH was JO22XW46JE. We were active from friday 19-10-2012 12:00 to sunday 21-10-2012 10:00 on HF and VHF. Most notable QSO were PR8ZX in Brazil on 10m and US4IQS from Ukraine alsoon 10m, we also heard P40Z from Arube but couldn't get past the huge pile-up...

The JOTA and JOTI were a great success! All kids got a chance to go on air (and many actually did!), talking to scouting groups nationally (but mostly regionally, since VHF FM was much easier to understand for them). A few scouts actually went on air with only minor supervision, calling CQ and going QSY themselves and they did great! Maybe we have a (couple of) new HAM(s) in a few years!